Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2015 i Outside

Outside|May 2015

A Dream Itinerary

Two decades ago I received an unforgettable gift courtesy of the infamous budget stalemate between Newt Gingrich and President Bill Clinton. It was early January 1996, and a government shutdown was entering its fourth week. I was a college student on winter break, road-tripping through the desert Southwest with a friend from high school. This was way before smartphones, and having just completed a three-day hike in Utah’s Grand Gulch, we were blissfully unaware of what was going on in the world at large. When we arrived at the Grand Canyon on the evening of January 6, the gates were closed. Huh, that’s odd, we thought. So we pitched a tent just outside the park boundaries. The next morning, we decided to check the entrance again. Good thing. The budget…

1 min

Outside|May 2015

99 AND COUNTING

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, WYOMING Everyone should visit Yellowstone’s trippy geysers and hot pools at least once. To avoid bus tours and traffic jams, go in the fall, when the park is mostly empty and the elk are horny and bugling. If you can’t pull that off, there are ways to navigate the more crowded times. Jeremy Schmidt, author of National Geographic’s Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks Road Guide, recommends Lone Star Geyser, a remote and less visited thermal area that erupts every three hours; it’s located two miles from Grand Loop Road by foot or bicycle. Get farther off the beaten path by hik-ing from the Heart Lake trailhead, near Grant Village, alongside hotsprings-studded Witch Creek, and pitch a tent on the shore of Heart Lake (backcountry permit, $25;…

22 min

Outside|May 2015

Perpetual Motion

YOUR WORKOUT shouldn’t end when you get to the office. A recent study in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine found that “prolonged sedentary time was independently associated with deleterious health outcomes regardless of physical activity.” For peak health, in other words, you need to move. Constantly. “Your body requires low-grade movement throughout the entire day for basic biological function,” says Katy Bowman, a biomechanist and author of Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement. “It has almost nothing to do with athletic performance— it has to do with your body’s circulation and feeding its cells.” Try these five strategies for a more mobile day. THINK SMALL Little movements and stretches, done continually throughout the day, are the most beneficial. Use a rolled up yoga mat to stretch…

2 min

Outside|May 2015

CLOUD HOPPERS

IT’S SHORTLY AFTER FIVE on the evening of August 1, 2014, AND THE WINDS ON MOUNT ROBSON ARE CALM, the sky is sapphire, and the sun is blazing, pushing temperatures to a near record 83 degrees. Robson—at 12,972 feet the highest peak in the Canadian Rockies—is so far north that darkness won’t fall here for several hours. Suddenly, a red streak flits past the summit. Next, an orange blip loops into view. They’re paragliders, two of them, waltzing with the mountain, which looks like a Giza pyramid clad in ice. For nearly an hour, Will Gadd and Gavin McClurg soar like lazy raptors. Climbers descending Robson’s south face stop to watch, dumbfounded. From above they can hear howls of joy. “Will was screaming the whole time,” McClurg, 43, tells me…

19 min

Outside|May 2015

CRUX TIME

1. IS THERE A SAFE WAY THROUGH THE ICEFALL? For the first 28 years of Everest exploration, starting in 1922, the Nepalese side of the mountain was off-limits; climbers launched their attempts from the Tibetan side. Once the Nepalese government opened the mountain to climbers, teams were stymied by the Khumbu Icefall, a treacherous corridor filled with huge, constantly shifting ice blocks, crevasses that appear without warning, collapsing seracs, and frequent avalanches. In 1952, a Swiss team pioneered a route through, and a year later, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay used it to reach the summit. The Icefall has been part of the standard route ever since, though it remains a dangerous zone: 34 Sherpas and five Westerners have died there since 1963. Each April, a group of eight Nepalis…

5 min

Outside|May 2015

School of Rock

1. Krieg’s Bouldering Bucket ($33; kriegclimbing.com) is the size of a soup pot and holds enough chalk for even the sweatiest sessions. A handy zipper pocket lets you safely stow keys, and a small sleeve keeps your Lapis chalk brush within reach. 2. Down-turned soles are more precise on tiny edges, but they can be painful for beginners. Scarpa’s Vapor V climbing shoes ($159; scarpa.com) strike the perfect balance, with a moderately curved arch and asymmetrical design that concentrates power in the toe. 3. Made from a spandex-denim blend, Prana’s Axiom jeans ($85; prana.com) look like classic blues but are flexible enough for the kinds of moves that have you twisting like Gumby. 4. Founded by British climber John Ellison, Climbers Against Cancer donates the proceeds from this cotton T-shirt…

1 min

Outside|May 2015

Between the Lines

“AS IF ON C UE, EACH WAVE FOLDED FROM THE TOP OF THE POINT DO WN INTO THE HEART OF THE COVE, NEVER OVERRUNNING THE OPEN FACE—A SURFER’S CANVAS.” —NORMAN OLLESTAD, PAGE 96 TEACHABLE MOMENTS Overcoming fear is essential to being able to live a full life. Nobody knows that better than Norman Ollestad, who lost his father in 1979, at age 11, in a four-person plane crash in California’s San Gabriel Mountains. Ollestad, who was also on board, made his way down an 8,200-foot peak in a blizzard to find shelter; he was the only one to survive. He revisited the site three decades later in his bestselling memoir, Crazy for the Storm. For this month’s “Vertical Snap” (page 96), Ollestad set out to teach his own son how…

7 min

Outside|May 2015

Alternative Energy

HEALTH, FITNESS & NUTRITION IN 2004, an overweight tech entrepreneur from the San Francisco Bay Area named Dave Asprey traveled to Tibet in search of en lightenment— and he found it in a cup of yak-butter tea. “Science says I should’ve been feeling like a zombie,” Asprey says, referring to the altitude and his poor health, “but I felt amazing.” When Asprey returned home, he worked up a Westernized version of the Tibetan brew that combined a specially formulated, lowtoxin coffee with concentrated coconut oil and grassfed butter. Asprey credits the recipe with helping him lose 100 pounds and giving him more energy and improved brain function. The company he launched to sell the ingredients, Bulletproof, has become synonymous with the drink, which, thanks to endorsements of butterenriched coffee from…

4 min

Outside|May 2015

Gels Go Au Naturel

Clif Bar Organic Energy Food $2.25 Savory flavors like sweet potato with sea salt contain fat and protein to fuel all-day efforts, while sugary options like banana, mango, and coconut give a quick boost of carbs. clifbar.com Plum Organics Vida $2 Each 80-calorie bag is a mix of fruit and vegetables— and that’s about it. Comes in three flavors, including pineapple with carrot and mint, and pear with kale, spinach, and celery. plumorganics.com PowerBar Performance Energy Blend $2.50 Fruit purees provide both glucose and fructose, which has been shown to raise carbohydrate oxidation and deliver more energy to muscles during exercise. Also nice: vitamins C and E. powerbar.com POWER TO THE PEOPLE Cyclists have been using power meters for years, because they’re the most accurate way to gauge effort while…

2 min

Outside|May 2015

THE SECRET LIFE OF GUIDES

EVERYBODY STARTS AT THE BOTTOM GARRETT MADISON, 36 OWNER OF MADISON MOUNTAINEERING; GUIDE ON THE SEVEN SUMMITS AND OTHER PEAKS I was 20 when I was first hired at Rainier Mountaineering. Back then they held guide tryouts. There were maybe 90 of us, and we were all competing for the same ten jobs. We had to get up and tell everybody why we thought we should be hired, which was one of owner Peter Whittaker’s tests. Another was the Death March, a one-mile, 1,500-vertical-foot run from Paradise up to Panorama Point. They said, “It’s important to finish near the front of the pack.” They had one of their stronger guys lead us out of the parking lot and up the hill through the snow. He took off at 100 percent,…

15 min

Outside|May 2015

VERTICAL SNAP

MY SON AND I TUCKED OUR SURFBOARDS under our arms and jumped off THE LAST WOODEN BEACH STAIR. It was the first morning of our trip to a secluded point break in Mexico, a country I’d been surfing all my life, starting with the road trips my father took me on in the 1970s when I was a boy. We’d leave our home in Malibu and head south, driving for several days, crossing the Gulf of California on the ferry, and surfing all the good spots down to Puerto Vallarta, where my grandparents lived. Carrying on the tradition with my son, Noah, was important. When I was 11, my father and I were in an airplane crash, and he’d been killed. These trips with Noah, now 14, kept us connected…

22 min

Outside|May 2015

Jersey Boys

WHEN I FIRST slipped on a rugby jersey before a match seven years ago, I was dismayed to learn that it was the only upper-body protection I’d be getting. But the burly slab of tightly woven cotton proved to be ample armor against minor dings. Which is why I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find out that Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard once bought one on a trip to Scotland, guessing that it would withstand the abuse of scrambling up rock walls better than the usual oxford. He was right. Durable and loose fitting, heavyweight rugby shirts like the Sender are as ideal for scaling El Cap as they are for scrumming down on the pitch. Plus, the high twill collar keeps slings from cutting into your neck. After his…

1 min

Outside|May 2015

Walk This Way

BEST FOR: DAY HIKES 1. Ridgemont Mesa Oiled Suede $99 At first glance, the Mesa Oiled may look like your typical stylish chukka, but there’s more to this midtop than meets the eye. The beefy lug pattern grips choss as capably as any trail shoe, and it’s armored with thick waterproof suede uppers and vulcanized outsoles. We wouldn’t recommend it for long or technical excursions—you’ll likely want more support if you’re hauling a pack—but we tested it on several desert outings and found it perfectly suited to light hiking. ridgemontoutfi tters.com BEST FOR: TECHNICAL TERRAIN 2. Salomon and Topo Designs Instinct Pro LTR $140 Performance-minded Salomon teamed up with the perennially cool backpack and accessories maker Topo Designs to create the limited-edition Instinct Pro LTR. It’s a stable, comfortable, lightweight…

2 min

Outside|May 2015

THE ILL-ADVISED, WILDLY AMBITIOUS WEEKEND PLAN

HIGH-ALTITUDE MOUNTAINEERING is typically the domain of the far-off and the frostbitten. Climbing a big mountain usually takes at least three weeks. But most people don’t realize that North America’s third-highest mountain, Pico de Orizaba, is in south-central Mexico, just two hours by air from Houston or four from Atlanta. It usually takes three days to climb. Ascending the glaciated, roughly 18,500-foot stratovolcano is pretty straightforward and a good opportunity to strap on crampons for the first time and see how you perform at altitude. Last November, I wanted a bigger challenge—to do the whole thing in a day. I invited Patagoniasponsored athlete and ski mountaineer Caroline Gleich, a 29-year-old, five-foot-one blonde with a fierce wit who’s a regular ski partner at home in Salt Lake City. She’s been the…

8 min

Outside|May 2015

Science or Snake Oil?

Go For It > Electric Brain Stimulation THE CLAIM: Attaching electrodes to your temples and running light electrical current through your brain can help with anxiety and insomnia, increase your pain threshold, and improve reasoning. THE REALITY: Scientists have investigated transcranial direct-current stimulation, or tDCS, since the 1960s and found that it can do all those things. What they don’t know: the long-term effects, good or bad. That makes tDCS a gamble— especially if you self-administer. LSD THE CLAIM: The hallucinogen enhances creativity. THE REALITY: It does. Researchers are also enthusiastic about using it to treat cancer patients, alleviate depression, and boost well-being, if the drug is administered in a controlled environment. Fitness Trackers THE CLAIM: Data-collection gadgets motivate people to be active. THE REALITY: Wearable tech may not accurately…

2 min

Outside|May 2015

Max King

STARTING IN 2007, King, a standout cross-country runner, spent a year and a half training exclusively for the steeplechase. The result? The worst national-championship race of his life. (He didn’t even advance out of his first-round heat.) A week later, to vent his frustration, King signed up for his first 50K—and won. Since then the Oregon native has become one of the most versatile and successful distance athletes in the country. This year, King took home a $30,000 purse from the 5K Warrior Dash National Championship in Esparta, California, then went on to win the 100K World Championship in Doha, Qatar. Next year he hopes to diversify his portfolio yet again by qualifying for the Olympic marathon in Brazil. >“When you do the same thing over and over, the returns…

2 min

Outside|May 2015

THE ROAD GOES ON FOREVER

“YOU GROW UP IN A CULT,” SAYS JULIANA BUHRING, “and everybody thinks THERE’S SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU.” Buhring is not damaged—not emotionally, she wants me to know—from her childhood in the Family International, the controversial religious group that she described in her bestselling 2007 memoir, Not Without My Sister. Physically, however, she is a mess. Her knees are scabs over scabs, and her forearms carry the scars of not-so-old asphalt burns. The bike wreck that caused them occurred two weeks ago, while she was descending wet pavement around a hairpin corner on Mount Vesuvius. The Pompeii-burying volcano stands just across the Gulf of Naples from Sorrento, Italy, where Buhring has been running a small bed-and-breakfast for the past three years to pay for her cycling habit. Buhring, 33, is tall,…

19 min

Outside|May 2015

All in Good Time

The Argonite movement that drives the hands of the Filson and Shinola is a uniquely American innovation and assembled by hand in Detroit.…

1 min

Outside|May 2015

Everything But the Kitchen Sink

1. Outdoor concerts. Beach -side picnics. Overnight trips with the kids. Alite Designs’ waterproof Meadow mat ($39; alitedesigns.com) is up for almost everything you do outside. 2. Coleman’s Hyperfl ame FyreChampion stove ($180; coleman.com) is just like the company’s original Army green, propane two-burner, only better: it’s sturdier, it cooks hotter, and it’s better at blocking the wind. Plus, you get two griddles. 3. Kelty’s Woobie 30 sleeping bag ($65; kelty.com) is for your littlest campers. It fits mini dudes and dudettes up to four feet tall. And you can’t beat the prints. 4. Simple and tough, Zippo’s Rugged lantern ($90; zippo.com) is water- and tumbleproof. The lithium-ion cell lasts an impressive ten hours on high, but there’s no swapping out batteries if it flatlines. 5. Stanley’s Mountain Vacuum Coffee…

2 min